Do you ever sit on the tube/train/bus and wonder what sort of lives the other people lead? Than this is the book for you!

Strange one this - each page is about a different person, each of whom is sitting on a tube train. I think each page has 253 words on it too. The fun thing for me was discovering the connections between the people, and seeing 2 different sides to lots of stories. I would not advise you to read while on the tube....! (You'll find out at the end of the book why, but you might be able to guess from the description below.)

From Amazon:
A Bakerloo tube train with no-one standing and no empty seats can carry 252 passengers. The driver makes 253. Each one has a page devoted to them, divided into three sections - what they look like, what they are thinking and inside information - and some of them are going to die.

Sending to Olliebear tomorrow........

A few others want to read it to, so setting it up as a bookray, here are the other members:
1) Ollibear (Hull, UK) [Received 28th July; Sent 30th July]
2) VeganVixenUK (Cardiff, Wales. UK) [Received 2nd August; Sent 15th August]
3) Talkland (Eastbourne, East Sussex UK) [Received <29th August; Sent >29th August]
4) Nefertari (Oldham. Lancashire, UK) [Received 3rd September; Sent 17th September]
5) YowlYY (Sydenham, London, UK) [Received 18th September; Sent > 1st October]
6) Tanabata (London, UK) [Received 6th October; Sent 29th October]
7) Chrisp93 (Ely, UK) [Received 6th November; Sent 27th November]
8) Suzen (Montreuil, Seine Saint-Denis, France) [Received <4th Jan; Sent 15th January]
9) Leggiona (Italy)
10) BlackLilith (Italy)
11) Agnul (Italy)
12) beckys (Lecco, Lombardia Italy)
13) VeganVixenUK - for boyfriend to read! (Cardiff, Wales, UK)
14) Caracas (Bonn, Germany)
15) Lorelei03 (Flushing, NY, USA)
16) Crazy-rat-girl (Portsmouth, UK)
17) Jenh (Cardiff, UK)
18) Veracity (Sydney, NSW, Australia)
19) Raynebair (Montgomery, Alabama, USA)
20) Spaceystacey (Bridgeton, NJ, USA)
21) Freesia (St Albans, UK)
22) ??

Bookray Rules (Adapted from Muffin77)
1) Everyody should leave a journal entry when receiving the book and after the read! Please let us all know what you think about it...
2) Also PM the next person on the list for a mailing addy and when that person doesn't answer within 7 days MAX! please PM the one after...
3) Everybody should also try to read the book soon (max - one month?)- but in a joyful speed. It's not about how many books someone can read within a certain amount of time - it's about enjoying it... and also to remember it... one day you may be in any same situation and then it's good to know that those things don't only happen to you :)))
4) You can send the book via surface mail or airmail - that is completely up to you!!!
5) If you find you don't have the time to read it when it's your turn please PM and I'll move you to a later slot. Or if I've put you in an slot where you need to send internationally and don't want to do this, let me know.
6) Any new members joining from now will be added to the end of the ray.

Have received this today - am looking forward to reading it as I loved Lust by the same author.

Will PM veganvixenuk for her addy to send to next.

Enjopyed this book immensly - I liked the alternative style and the advertsd between each section - funny. As usual with Geoff Ryman I feel like I have read three books instead of one as he really packs in the detail but it really works with this book.

Will now be sending it on to it's new home for a while at Veganvixenuk.

Happy reading, Laura.

Received in the mail this morning. Thank you Olliebear! I started reading it on the train on the way to the first ever Cardiff meet up.
Olliebear has included a postcard with some information about herself in the style of the book. i think when i have finished the book i will do this too and include both hers and mine when i send it on to the next person. I thought it was a really cool idea!

Really enjoyed reading this book. began reading it on a train, strangely!
Although its only one novel at the end it feels like you've read 253 life stories! Its amazing how the author can make you feel like you know a character in only 253 words!!!
Some of the stories are moving, some tragic, some happy and some unexpected. I loved reading how all the people tied in and to reaed about different view points of the same situation. Some of the things people were thinking were pretty shocking!
I also liked the adverts in the book. They made me laugh.
Read this in between the Dave Pelzer books "A Child Called It" and "The Lost Boy" expecting some light reading but it wasn't quite what i expected. It can be draining to read, but thoroughly enjoyable!
I'd recommend it... as i have to my boyfriend, who'll be reading it later on it's travels!
Enjoy!

Sent to Talkland yesterday (15/08/03)!
Happy Reading!

This book appeals to the voyeur in people. I freely admit to being a voyeur, [no nets at the window is an invitation to peer in; TV reality shows are tacky but compulsive viewing; sit behind couple talking on a bus and I can't help but listen...]. People are rarely what they appear to be and are fascinating to observe or guess about them.

253 was the sort of book to dip into because one could not read it straight as it wasn't a novel but rather like reading a whole bunch of application forms except more interesting! There were some people whose stories stood out and others whose faded pretty quickly but toward the end my mind seemed to be full up and the individuals blurred into a mush in my memory, a bit like trying to remember details of people who you travelled with on the bus to work a few days ago!

Both Olliebear and VeganVixen have included a brief description of themselves in much the same way as the book is laid out. I am going to do mine online, as my hand is still a bit sore from where I put it through a window last week [silly me!] and it is easier to type then hold a pen. Their pieces are travelling with the book, so y'all have to wait to read what they say.

TALKLAND

Outward Appearance
Multicoloured shoulder length hair, the result of a dye job growing out. A round face on top of a round body, not very tall. She is wearing a plain, dark blue t-shirt, knickers and white socks.

Inside Information
A chronic underachiever, who tended to drift through life. Married with no children, but dreams of her own child, one day. A member of a select band of bibliophiles; a secret BookCrosser.

What she is doing or thinking
Sitting on the sofa with her legs up and out in front of her. Most of the cushions are at the opposite end of the sofa but one is between her back and the armrest, the other is on her lap, with a notebook computer open on top of it. The white wire from the computer leads a short distance to the telephone jack on the wall beside the window and the black wire stretches across the floor and under an overloaded table. She is reading what is on the screen, and every so often smiles or laughs out loud. Then there is a flurry of activity as she taps furiously and then a final click and a sigh. Slowly she arches her back, and raises both arms above her head then weaving her hands together, palms both facing upwards, cracks her fingers. The face scrunches up. She then goes back to reading the screen.

The book arrived with me today, I will read it asap :-)

I just couldn't get into this book. I thought the thoughts of some of the characters were interesting, but there's no way I could read a whole book full of it so I just sort of dipped in and out until I'd read the majority of it.

I will let you know when I have sent this on.

Sent on to YowlYY today. Enjoy :-)

Arrived this morning with my office mail... thanks for making a grey office day a lot more colourful!
I will be reading it next week...

This book is amazing! You can read it whenever, as the chapters are only 1 page long (or 253 words long ;-),one for each destiny...
Used as I am to long descriptions (just finished reading some other books so much different in style), this was a challenge, as the information given on each traveller was just enough to make me curious to read more...and there wasn't much more in many cases! However, I am not sure that one can read the book in one go. I wasn't able to, so I had to go back to a traditional type of novel in between.
I found particularly interesting the foot notes...some true, some absolutely fake...but what fun!
Next time I'm on the tube (but it will never be too late, as I don't fancy travelling on it much) I will look at my fellow passengers with different eyes.

For those who are interested in reading more on the Tube, there's an hilarious site on the web that I recommend... here below... and it lists also some funny announcements made by the drivers, one of whose I am quoting here...

Announcement on the uk.transport.london noticeboard, posted by Simon Hewison:
"I was at Mill Hill East the other day, a quiet tube station, and the driver of the train said something like
"Hello this is xxx speaking, I am the captain of your train, and we will be departing shortly, we will be cruising at an altitude of approximately zero feet, and our scheduled arrival time in Morden is 3:15pm. The temperature in Morden is approximately 15 degrees celsius, and Morden is in the same time zone as Mill Hill east, so there's no need to adjust your watches."
It caused a laugh from all the passengers."

For more funny announcements on London Underground trains, go and see http://www.london-underground-guide.tk/

I have PMed Tanabata as she is next in the list...as soon as I have her address I will send the book to her....

The book arrived safely over the weekend, thanks YowlYY for passing it on. Looks fun! I'll start dipping into it in the next couple of days.

A fun concept! Makes you really wonder what about the inside stories of all the people you see on the train, the bus, in the streets...many things are not as they first appear! ;-)

Although I enjoyed the various perspectives, I found it got a bit tedious though after awhile as I could only read a bit at a time, and I ended up flipping back and forth a lot between the connected stories. Overall, I think I'm more impressed with the idea of it than the book itself. I think I'll check out the website and compare.

Will pack it up and send it on it's way very soon...

Posted this afternoon, so it's now en route to Chrisp93. :-)

Thanks to Tanabata for sending it on - it arrived on 4 November, and I'll be journalling it with my views when I send it on.

I found this a great book to dip into. Perhaps I missed out on a lot of the continuity of the what was claimed to be the underlying "novel" by this method, but I enjoyed being able to acquaint myself with various characters.

It was just like sitting on the tube between the Embankment and Elephant & Castle (on the days when I had run out of reading matter!) and trying to work out in my head a mini-biography for my fellow passengers.

Many thanks to Psychjo for making this available as a ring.

It's gone off today to Suzen in France, who I hope will find it as enjoyable and different a reading experience as I did!

Oops! Not sure how I forgot to journal this when I got it, sorry! I just finished reading another book ray book (The Devil's Cup) and trying but not finishing another (The Deep Field) , so I'll start this one now.

I like the playfulness of the book, but only read bits and pieces of it. I think if I were currently taking the metro to work every day, I probably would have read a lot more of it since the format is perfect for that type of reading, not to mention the theme!
I'm sending it on its way today.

This books has gone astray in the post. The lovely YowlYY has found another copy, so I have now transfered the remaining list of people who wanted to read it across to the new copy which can be found here.